Wind and Water
by DarkMasterofCupcakes
Summary: Takes place in misa1's universe, five years from Monstersitting. Involves teen pregnancy. After becoming pregnant, Shock comes to live with Jack and Sally. No one besides her and the Skellingtons know. Not even the baby's father. Lock/Shock. On Hiatus.
1. Prolouge

Sally gently nudged her younger son away from the banquet table before he knocked over the glass of pumpkin punch.

The five-year-old prince was playing with his twin brother, Jack Jr. and the two were having the time of their young afterlives.

In fact, it seemed that nearly everyone was having a good time.

Jack had chosen to throw a party, for no real reason. He simply felt the need to celebrate.

Sally, always delighted to see her husband and king happy, was quick to agree.

They had personally invited everyone they knew, even a certain trio whom made some other citizens uneasy.

However, the three former henchmen of Oogie Boogie had changed somewhat as they entered they're teenage years (Lock and Shock were both sixteen, with Barrel two years younger), and Jack felt that they could be trust to some extent.

Besides, like human children, they'd grown out of childhood enjoyments. This included pranks, though they still had a habit of pulling tricks on Halloween and their respective "birthdays".

Still, despite the success of the festivities, Sally had to admit she was somewhat restless.

With the exception of stopping Junior and Nicholas from knocking over plates, bowls, and drinks, the Pumpkin Queen mostly just walked amongst the guests.

While there were many citizens of Halloweentown, very few spoke to Sally unless directed to; they were always much happier to speak with Jack.

Only four people spoke with her on a daily basis: The Witches, Fish-Gal, and Shock.

The Witches were always a source of conversation, but, while they nearly always spoke kindly, Sally knew they were always itching to say something nasty. It had been this way ever since Jack had chosen Sally to be his wife, gaining her the resentment of the jealous witches who had been infatuated with the skeleton king for who knows how long.

That left two options if Sally wanted to have a conversation with someone who she knew had some sincerely kind words. Unfortunately, neither was anywhere to be found.

The Fish-Gal was at her home, caring for five newly-laid eggs.

About two years ago, the amphibious woman had met a male of her species, and shortly after they became mates (she corrected Sally when she assumed they were husband and wife, stating that for her kind, the correct word was "mate").

The eggs had been laid approximately a week ago. They were transparent, allowing a clear few of the developing fishlings. Not that there was much to see; each looked like a half-sized seahorse with small semi-transparent "hands" on the sides of their chests.

With Fish-Gal tending to her unhatched children, that left just Shock for Sally to converse with.

The problem with this was that Sally hadn't seen the teenage witch since she and her cohorts arrived.

She knew they'd arrive and that they hadn't left.

Barrel was seen mingling among the other guests, occasionally trying to sneak shots of champagne; the trio rarely left an event with all three members present.

Hoping to find her younger companion, the ragdoll asked the ghoul where she could find Shock.

"She and Lock went upstairs. They're probably making out in a closet or something" Barrel said, before going back to trying to sneak drinks he was not old enough to have.

Sally felt herself blush slightly; she had no idea why, but the image of physical relations past kissing seemed so…strange if one was not married.

Still, she did want to speak with someone….and she had to bring the children up for bed anyway.

She called for the twins, who gave identical whines of disappointed at having to go to bed during the party.

Their mother simply let their complaints go over her head. In the first years where they could verbally express the desire to stay up for longer, she would bow to their whims, unable to resist their childlike charms. Now she had trained herself to be a more forceful mother; when she said it was time for bed, it was time for bed.

She grabbed Jack Junior and Nicholas's hands in her own and led them up the spiral staircase.

Once upstairs, she ushered them towards their bedroom, passing by a very alone Lock.

Sally made a mental note to ask the devil why he was without his girlfriend after she got the princes to sleep.

The queen brought her sons into their room, got them into their night-clothes, and tucked them in.

For all their complaining at having to go to bed, they were out like a light as soon as their skulls touched the pillows and their comforters were pulled snug against their bone bodies.

With her children sound asleep, Sally went to question Lock.

He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the closed lavatory door.

"Shock's in there, probably trying to make as close friends with your toilet as she has with ours" he informed, in an almost sarcastic way.

Sally then heard the sounds of somebody throwing up from behind the closed door; sounds that before were drowned out by the cries of her young sons.

Now, however, she was feeling very sympathetic for the poor girl in the bathroom.

"How long has she been like this?" she asked the young man with concern.

Lock said Shock had been getting sick like this pretty much every day for the past month, usually in the mornings.

Sally felt her eyes widen and hoped to ask Lock more.

Before she could question further, however, Shock stepped out of the bathroom, looking worse than Sally had seen her in a while.

While not overly concerned with her appearance, the former Boogie Girl had taken to keeping a relatively clean appearance since entering her teenage years, though she was never able to tame her wild, dark green hair.

However, right now, her face was flushed and she had a very exhausted look in her eyes, like the act of her latest meal forcibly expelling itself took a lot out of her.

Sally also noticed a tiny bit of growth in Shock's front-namely her stomach and her chest; the fabric of her form-fitting dress was stretched ever so slightly in those areas.

Shock muttered an apology to Lock, who shrugged it off and the two went back to the main event.

The ragdoll woman stood in their wake for several moments, just thinking, before returning as well.

* * *

That night, while the king and queen were readying themselves for bed, Sally made a request.

"Jack" she began, "Do you think you could send a message to Sandy Claus and ask him to send Dr. Frost? For tomorrow, if possible".

Jack looked confusedly at his wife.

The only time when they called for the Christmas Town doctor was when Sally was pregnant with the twins. Did that mean….?

When Jack voiced this question to his wife, Sally was quick to clarify.

"No, no. It's not for me. There is just…something I'd like to talk to him about" she told her husband.

The Pumpkin King kissed his love's forehead tenderly, promising that he would send the message posthaste.

Sally smiled at her husband's words, knowing from experience that he would keep his promise.

And, as Sally fell into a state of slumber, Jack wrote a note to his fellow holiday leader, requesting a meeting with Dr. Frost.

* * *

Well, this is a little plot-bunny I've been cuddling for a while, and I feel it's time to let it go. The story takes place in the universe of misa1, from this very site. Please check her out, because she is a wonderful writer.

Well, this story is actually a semi-AU of her stories, because Lock and Shock have been dating for approximately two months in this story, and I'm pretty sure they don't get together in her stories. Also, other events of this story go against what happens in her stories.

Bit of a title explanation: In the King Arthur legends (my personal favorite legends), there is a story called, "The Queen of Air and Darkness". At the end of this story, Arthur unwittingly sleeps with his half-sister, Morgause, and conceives Mordred, due to being taken "between wind and water". So, this is kinda a fun little jab at the people who think Lock and Shock are brother and sister, and me still supporting them, even if they were.

All titles will have references to the King Arthur legends, regardless of content. It's more for fun that anything else.

TNBC, Lock, Shock, Barrel, Jack, Sally, Fish-Gal belong to Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Disney and Touchstone Pictures.

Jack Jr, Nicholas, Dr. Frost belong to misa1

Plot belongs to me.


	2. The Fall of Tintagil

The next day, Sally was pouring some bat-wing soup into three bowls: hers, Nicholas's, and Shock's.

The witch had come over for the afternoon, and Sally insisted that she have some. She said that there was plenty for Shock to have some, and there would still be plenty for all the Skellingtons.

Both Jack and his eldest son were out in town.

The Pumpkin King was rehearsing for Halloween, which was a mere month away.

Normally, both Jack Jr. and Nicky stayed with their mother when their father had to rehearse for the holiday, but on this occasion, the elder son begged to go until his parents finally gave in.

Jack, knowing that Shock was coming over for a visit, asked Sally if she was going to tell the younger girl to not come. After all, Dr. Frost was coming to Halloweentown that afternoon.

Sally insisted that it would be no problem and sent her husband and son off.

"You don't look very good" the young prince told the green-haired girl sitting across from him.

Indeed, Shock did look like she had seen better days.

She was tired-looking and her face was flushed.

"I didn't get much sleep last night" she told Nicholas, taking a bite out of a piece of wing that was floating in the greenish-brown broth.

He questioned why she hadn't slept much.

Sally had a feeling that she knew, and she also knew Shock likely did not want to discuss it.

She told her son not to ask people questions that they may not want to answer.

Nicholas nodded, returning to his soup. The two women did the same.

For the rest of the meal, everything was silent.

Shock had taken two servings of soup, looking very ashamed because both Sally and Nicholas had only had one each.

When she was about halfway done with the second bowl, a loud knock from outside caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"I'll get it" Nicholas announced, running to the door before his mother could tell him not to.

When he returned to the dining room, he received a "look" from Sally, causing him to chuckle nervously.

Sally's expression changed to a grateful smile when she saw who had been at the door.

Dr. Frost stepped forward, nodding in greeting to the Halloween Queen.

"Now" he began, "What's been troubling you?"

Sally shook her head, saying there was nothing troubling her. She glanced at Shock pointedly, causing the doctor to do the same.

As if knowing she was being watched, the witch stopped eating, stirring the soup in slow circle with the tip of the spoon.

She ignored the two people looking at her, until Dr. Frost walked over to the table, standing barely a foot from where she was sitting.

At this point, Shock realized that there was no point in ignoring him.

She glanced at the doctor from the corner of her eye.

"Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" he asked her.

Hesitating slightly before answering, the young witch glanced at Sally, as if asking if she should accept.

Sally nodded to show that this strange man was indeed someone who could be trusted.

Deciding to believe the queen (it was Sally, for God's sake, would she really set anyone up with somebody who was dangerous?), Shock agreed to answer whatever questions the Christmas doctor may have.

With that, he led her into the Skellingtons' parlor, telling her to sit on the sofa.

Nicholas attempted to follow, but his mother told him to go play in his room.

The prince started to whine, until Sally offered him a choice between playing upstairs or being denied any deserts, he quickly rushed up to his bedroom to play.

With Nicky occupied, at least for a few minutes, Sally went into the parlor and took a seat in the corner of the room.

She didn't know if there was anything that she would have to do, but if there was anything she could do to help, she wanted to be there.

The doctor was asking questions to the witch. Questions like, "Have you had any….physical relationships with a man within the past few months?", and "When was your last menstrual cycle?".

Shock answered the first question with a nod, but was unable to answer the second at all.

Sally, who had read a book that Jack had asked Santa Clause for (like his love of celebrations, Jack also had a love for knowledge and had started to ask his friend for books on random subjects to learn about) about human reproduction, helped to answer.

She explained to Dr. Frost that in Halloweentown, they normally didn't experience cycles like the one he was talking about. Or, at the very least, they didn't happen the same way as a human's or an elf's.

With that bit of information, the Christmas Town physician frowned.

Obviously, the involvement of the cycle was very helpful to finding the answer he was looking for.

With a bit of hesitation, he asked Shock to pull up her dress, enough to reveal her stomach.

Almost instantly, her cheeks turned red and the look on her face made it obvious what she was thinking: 'How much trouble will I get in for trying to break this guy's neck?'

After a few moments, during which she decided it wasn't worth it to try and injure the doctor, the ex-Boogie's Girl stood and made her way to the first level washroom.

When she came back into the parlor, her dress was bunched up underneath her bosom, and she had a dingy grey towel wrapped around her waist.

"Lay down" Dr. Frost instructed, motioning to the sofa once again.

Shock complied, and her face once again became flushed as he began gently pressing on her stomach.

After several moments of examination, he removed his hand and told Shock that she could pull her dress down again.

Claiming that she was too tired to get up, go to the bathroom, and come back again, the teenager simply slid the bunched up fabric of her dress down, apparently not caring that the doctor got a brief glance at her underwear.

Once she was situated, the doctor chose to reveal his findings.

"Well, it would seem you are pregnant. Approximately eight or nine weeks, I would say" he said, a solemn look on his face, as though he had a feeling this was not the news Shock wanted him to deliver.

Sure enough, the moment the first sentence left his lips, she looked like she'd been struck by lightning. Obviously, this was the last thing the witch was expecting to hear.

Dr. Frost, clearly unsure of how to deal with the emotional feelings of a teenage mother-to-be, simply turned to Sally, telling her to send a message when it looked like the birth would be eminent, and then departed.

As soon as he was gone, Sally took a seat next to Shock.

She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, in an attempt to comfort her, but it was quickly shrugged off.

Assuming that she knew the reason (or, at least one of the reasons) why her friend was so upset, the queen said, "Don't worry, Shock, I'm sure Lock…".

At this point, she trailed off, thinking of another reason why Shock may have been so upset at the idea of impending motherhood.

It was fairly well-known that Lock and Shock had not been dating for that long, and that before getting together with her devilish cohort, the witch had dated a vampire whose name Sally could not remember.

As if reading her mind, Shock spoke up.

"Lock's the only guy I've slept with" she informed with something like a snap.

Sally felt her cheeks grow warm, embarrassed that she had been caught thinking such thoughts.

Noticing how tired the younger woman looked (she was honestly struggling to keep her eyelids from falling), Sally suggested that she take a nap.

At first, Shock refused, but, in the end, Sally's adamant suggestions, and her body's need for rest, won the battle and she ended up asleep on the Skellingtons' old sofa.

Still seated next to the witch, the queen of Halloweentown sighed and gently rubbed the girl's back in a comforting way.

She would have to speak with her husband when he returned.

* * *

Well, I caught Mordrie (the Plot Bunny) not long after I wrote the prologue, and, after a bit more cuddling, he gave me the inspiration for this chapter. Once again, I have to say, check out the stories of misa1. She is an excellent author, one of my favorites (at least for Nightmare Before Christmas).

Yeah, I'm not even going to try and act like you should be surprised. Anyone who's over the age of like, ten should have guessed what was wrong with Shock last chapter.

Sorry for the lack of Jack (and Little Jack), but they will appear next chapter. Don't you worry, you'll see the Pumpkin King and his heir.

Chapter Title Explanation Time: Before King Arthur was born, his father, Uther Pendragon, fell in love and tried to court the Countess of Cornwall, Igraine. The Earl, Igraine's husband, would not allow the king of England to take his wife, and, as a way to protect her, placed her in a castle known as Tintagil, while the Earl took refuge in another castle called Terabil. During a siege, in which the Earl was killed, Pendragon managed to get inside the stronghold of Tintagil and conceived Arthur with the Countess. However, because the two could not be married until the Countess was through grieving for her husband, Arthur was born too soon, and had to be taken from his mother after birth by Merlyn and taken to Sir Ector, who would be Arthur's foster father.

TNBC, Jack, Sally, Lock, and Shock belong to Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Disney and Touchstone Pictures

Jack Jr., Nicholas, and Dr. Frost belong to misa1

The Plot belongs to me


	3. Forest Sauvage

The moon was high in the sky by the time Jack arrived home with the elder of his sons; its light was almost as bright as the jack-o-lantern sun.

Jack adjusted the slumbering prince in his arms. Jacky had fallen asleep on the way home, though he started becoming tired hours ago.

He had a feeling that Nicholas had fallen asleep as well, considering how late it was. At the very least, his younger son would be in bed by now.

Considering he knew Sally would not retire to bed until he returned, the king was not surprised to see the flicker of candlelight in the window.

He entered the mansion, choosing to place Jack Jr. into his bed before going to greet his wife.

While he expected to see his ragdoll queen, he was much surprised to see the female Boogie Boy lying on the sofa. She wasn't doing anything more then sleeping, but that was enough to make Jack wonder.

Ever since she and Lock had gotten together two months prior, Shock had ceased her "sleepovers" at the Skellington mansion entirely.

So, with a raised eyebrow (or the approximation of one, considering the skeleton-man's lack of hair of any sort), Jack turned to Sally.

He asked her what the witch was doing at the mansion so late at night.

It took several moments before Sally could respond. And even then, she seemed very hesitant.

"Jack…." She began, licking her sewn lips slightly to moisten them. "Shock is not feeling very well, and I thought she could stay with us until she was better."

The Pumpkin King looked at his queen like he thought she was insane.

All three of the former miscreants had improved in the years since the death of their old boss, and Jack had grown to accept all three in his mansion. However, he refused to allow them alone in his home.

"How long do you think she'll have to stay for?" Jack asked hesitantly, almost afraid of what the answer would be.

When Sally replied that a week would probably be most beneficial to the teenage witch, Jack fell back into his favorite chair.

A week was a long time to allow one of the most famous trick-or-treaters in the history of Halloweentown in his home. That was plenty of time for her to cause trouble, should she decide to do so. Not to mention he did not want to have to worry about her inviting Lock over without permission from himself or Sally.

The moments passed in silence as Jack pondered his wife's request.

After a while, he nodded his approval.

However, he also insisted that Shock not be left alone in the mansion for over an hour or so.

Sally felt that was fair, and agreed to her husband's rule.

To thank him, she gave him a peck on his bony lips.

The two of them retired to bed after this little bit of interaction, Sally placed a cobweb blanket on Shock's body.

The girl stirred slightly, but did not wake.

* * *

A few days later, Jack and Sally sat once again in the parlor, sipping tea.

The boys were also in the room, and they were also drinking. Unlike their parents, they were drinking pumpkin juice.

And, rather then sit quietly and drink, Jack Jr. and Nicholas were playing with each other, rolling a ball on the floor to each other between sips of juice.

Shock was still asleep, in the guestroom that she stayed in whenever she spent the night.

It seemed Jack's fears of leaving the witch unattended in the manor were unwarranted after all.

Due to whatever illness plagued her, she spent a fair amount of the day in the guest room. And, while Jack did feel sorry for the usually active young woman being drained of her energy, he was glad that she was not able to roam around the mansion at all hours of the night.

Jack looked at Sally once again, frowning when he noticed her fidgeting ever so slightly.

He knew this look all too well; she had something very important to ask him.

Feeling it would be easier for them to converse without their children underfoot, Jack turned to his sons.

"Boys, would you mind taking your ball and playing upstairs? Your mother and I have to talk…..about how much we love each other."

He added the last part to ensure that the twins would agree; they were still young boys, even if they lacked any skin of their own.

Sure enough, Jacky and Nicky were upstairs in a heartbeat, leaving their mother and father alone in the parlor.

After several silent seconds, Sally spoke.

"Jack, I was thinking….Shock and I talked about this yesterday, and we agree that she should stay here for a few months longer….a year at the most" she voiced her idea to her husband.

The Pumpkin King paused, and then frowned. His frown slowly progressed into a scowl.

"Why do you want her to stay for that long?" he asked his queen. Even if she was friends with the witch, Sally still agreed with her husband that none of the Boogie Boys should be left alone in the mansion unsupervised.

"I think it would be best for her condition if she did" was all Sally said to explain her logic.

Jack was beginning to lose his patience. It seemed like Sally was pulling at strings in order to make an excuse to have Shock stay even longer.

"And what, may I ask, is her condition?" he asked, his voice becoming somewhat angry. "What could be so wrong with her that she would have to remain here for an entire yea-"

"She's pregnant, Jack."

Jack had to put his hand over his mouth to keep from spitting out the tea he'd just drunk.

There were many things he was expecting Sally to say; this was not one of them.

He frowned once again, this time in thought, rather than in anger.

"You're sure about that?"

Sally nodded.

She told him that the reason she'd wanted Dr. Frost to visit a few days back was because she suspected Shock was with child, but wasn't sure.

The doctor confirmed it.

"Mama!" Nicholas's voice called from the room he shared with his identical brother. "Jacky broke my train!"

Sally sighed the sigh of a mother who had to deal with constantly fighting children, before going up the stairs to act as judge for her sons.

Now Jack was left alone with his thoughts.

Shock was pregnant?

How was that even possible?

Well, of course, Jack knew how it was possible, but he still couldn't believe it. This was Shock, for crying out loud!

It was hard to imagine her with a child of her own, especially considering she was still a minor.

Still…he could understand why Sally wanted the girl to live with them for a while.

The tree house that Shock shared with Lock and Barrel was very drafty, and parts of the wooden floor were actually rotted through. Not to mention the trio didn't have much to eat, except for candy that they had collected from years from trick-or-treating, and stealing from the annual candy-making "parties".

It was clearly no place for someone who was going to have a baby to live.

With his mind made up, Jack went up the iron-stairs to tell Sally his decision.

* * *

"I still don't get why you're moving out." Lock half-mumbled to his girlfriend as she put her hairbrush into her bag.

There wasn't much in the bag, just a few dresses, some night clothes, and a robe; Sally had told the young witch not to bring much.

Shock had come back to the tree house, after a week of sleepovers at the Skellington mansion. And, one of the first things she did was tell her cohorts that she would be leaving once again, this time for several months.

Needless to say, neither of them was happy about this.

Lock was still, after a day of being told, trying to figure out why his girlfriend had chosen to live with the Skellingtons for so long….and why Jack was allowing it.

Sure, the skeleton-man had grown to accept the trio for who they were, and even allowed them in his house sometimes.

But…this was something big.

So, he kept pressing, hoping to get some kind of an answer. However, she never answered his questions.

"You think we're going to make fun of you cause you gained a little weight?" he asked, coming up behind her. "Actually, I think it's kinda cute."

As he said this, he wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her slightly swollen stomach gently, making it protrude a bit more.

Shock's grass-colored eyes widened slightly, before narrowing dangerously.

Before Lock could release his grip on her, the witch twisted around in his arms, and slapped him, hard as she could, in the cheek.

Lock gave a slight grunt of pain, a tiny trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth, a result of his inner cheek grazing sharp teeth.

Shock sighed; while she often got angry with her boyfriend, she rarely hit him for things that he honestly didn't think were offensive to her. How was he supposed to know that she would have a problem with her stomach being touched?

"Sorry" she muttered, offering him a piece of tissue paper. He took it from her, wiping away the blood that was dripping off his chin.

"I'm just going there for a while cause Sally invited me. I wasn't going to pass something like this up." She explained away her leaving in a way she felt he would believe.

There was no way she would tell him the truth, at least not yet.

To her great relief, he simply nodded in understanding.

The excuse was more than believable, at least the second half.

None of the Boogie Boys would turn away an opportunity to be inside Jack's mansion unsupervised.

While, as children, they desired this to cause trouble, now they wanted to do it so they could say they had.

"Well, try and find a way to let us spend the night sometimes" the devil said, smirking as he added, "Mostly me."

Shock chuckled slightly, promising that she'd see what she could do.

After zipping her bag closed, she gave him a quick peck on the lips, before exiting the tree house, and making the trek towards her temporary home: Skellington Manor.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own The Nightmare Before Christmas, or any characters who exist in its canon. The only thing I do own from Nightmare is a copy of the Collector's Edition DVD.

Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack, Sally, Lock, Shock belong to Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Touchstone Pictures, and Disney

Jack Jr. and Nicholas belong to misa1 from

The plot, and Lock and Shock's unborn baby belong to me.

Chapter Title Explanation: As I said in the previous chapter, Arthur Pendragon was born through the union of King Uther Pendragon, also known as Uther the Conqueror, who was the King of England at the time, and the recently widowed Countess of Cornwall, Igraine. Because Arthur had been born too soon for his mother to have gotten over her grief of her deceased husband and marry Uther, the boy had to be taken somewhere else to be raised. So, Merlyn the "wizard", took the newborn Arthur to the home of a man called Sir Ector, who fostered Arthur as if he were his own, along with his biological son, Kay. Sir Ector lived in a place known as Forest Sauvage, and it was here where Arthur spent the first nineteen years of his life before he discovered his true origins.


	4. Shrouded by Avalon's Mists

Shock growled in frustration as she threw the belt onto the plain grey comforter on the bed of the Skellingtons' guest room.

A month had passed since she'd come to live with the royal family, and she was already having troubles with the reason she'd come to take residence in their home.

By this time, the morning sickness had more or less ceased, allowing her to get her appetite back. In fact, her appetite had…improved since returning. Not that this was a good thing to the teenage witch.

Her slowly expanding stomach, which had been squeezed by her somewhat tight garments for weeks now, had finally gotten to the point where it was large enough that it caused wardrobe malfunctions.

The young enchantress was adamant about keeping her condition secret for as long as possible. She knew if anyone found out, it would ruin her image forever, and her image was all she had at this point.

Most of her lighter dresses had, about two weeks ago, gotten so small that the bulge in her abdomen was clear enough that people would become suspicious.

Since then, Shock had found a new favorite garment to wear while she went out. It was a long dress that reached just above her knees, with a belt that wrapped around her waist in way that made it appear she was wearing two belts. The dress was very dark, almost black, which made it appear like her stomach was much flatter that it really was. She almost looked normal when she wore that dress.

Unfortunately, the outfit only worked with the belt, and, now her stomach was too large for the belt to wrap around comfortably.

Shock tried putting the accessory to the loosest setting, but even that squeezed her middle in a way that made it somewhat hard to breathe.

And she couldn't wear the dress without the belt. If she did, someone would question it.

For all the things she said insulting the denizens' intelligence, they weren't completely stupid. Someone would notice she wasn't wearing the belt, they'd probably notice the slight bulge in her midsection, and her secret would be out.

Falling back onto the bed again, the witch laid a palm on her stomach. She began to press on the bump, as if she was hoping to flatten her stomach out.

As she increased the pressure, she briefly wondered if the activity would be hurting the baby.

Almost as quickly as the thought entered her brain, she found herself thinking about if she really cared.

If something hurt the baby this early on, it probably wouldn't survive.

If the baby died now, it would be like she was never pregnant to begin with. She could simply move on with her life, pretend this never even happened.

Suddenly, she realized that what she was thinking, simply getting out of the pregnancy early on, made her seem like a coward. Like she was afraid to carry a baby inside her, give birth, and then raise it. Like she wasn't good enough.

"I could do it just a well as anyone else." the teenage witch said aloud, though there was no one in the room, save herself.

If Sally could have two babies, she could definitely have one.

Sally, while the girl did respect her as a friend and the queen, wasn't exactly the strongest person in Halloweentown. Hell, she could literally fall apart if you grabbed her in the right way.

If someone like that could handle everything that came with being a mother, so could the steely-nerved witch who used to work for one of the scariest monsters known the humankind.

Her thoughts were jarred by the sound of her door opening.

In stepped Jack, who, after finding himself at the receiving end of a rather fierce glare, apologized, said the door must have cracked open, and informed Shock that it was time for breakfast.

Shock, in return, sighed.

She grabbed the ragged robe she'd worn out of the bath the night before, wrapping it around her body, even though she was fully dressed.

Once downstairs, Shock once again found herself cursing in her mind, this time over how good a cook Sally was.

Convinced she could keep her weight down enough to keep anyone from growing suspicious; Shock had chosen to eat as little as possible to keep the leech in her stomach satisfied.

Her "hostess", however, seemed determined to make her stray from that plan with every meal.

Spread upon the table were platters of green eyes, moldy toast, "French" toast made with the same moldy bread, sour milk, rotten eggs and cinnamon just past its peak of flavor, and several other Halloween breakfast treats.

The sixteen-year-old mother-to-be tried to resist the temptation of the food, she really did. But, in her current condition, she found herself unable, and ended up having at least one serving of everything, three on the French toast, which was a particular favorite of hers, even before she became pregnant.

As she held out her plate for another serving of eggs, she muttered angrily, "I'm already going to be gaining weight like crazy. I don't need your help, Sal."

Jack Jr. was sitting next to her, not having moved from his seat, even though he'd finished his breakfast. He stared at her stomach; the robe had come undone and, the way she was sitting provided a decent few of the growth.

"Are you sneaking treats?" he asked the witch innocently. "Mama says if we sneak treats, we'll get fat and tired."

The witch's eyes flashed for a second as she thought about how lucky Jacky was that he wasn't closer to her age.

As if sensing the girl's anger, Sally quickly corrected her son. She informed him that Shock was not sneaking treats, but that her belly was going to get bigger because there was a baby growing inside it.

The six-year-old grinned with curiosity, and then asked, "How'd it get in there?"

Sally's grey-blue skin blanched at the question, and she turned to Jack for assistance.

"I'll tell you later, son".

Satisfied with that answer, the elder son of the Pumpkin King dashed out of the room to join his brother in a game of tag outside.

"Speaking of the baby" began Jack, looking at the witch pointedly, "when are you going to tell Lock?"

When she first came to stay with them, Shock had almost immediately said she didn't want anyone to know about her pregnancy, at least not for a while. So far, she was succeeding; no one seemed to notice any difference in the girl's physique, and if they did, they probably chalked it up to her having poor eating habits. But, Jack thought Lock ought to know. He was the baby's father, after all.

"I'm not" Shock said simply, taking a sip of sour milk.

Jack frowned at her answer, but he didn't say anything in response.

In the years he'd known her, the king had found that the witch could argue like nobody else, and that the arguments she was involved in often became full on shouting matches, even if she was the only one raising their voice.

The last thing Jack needed was for an argument to interrupt such a nice meal.

However, before he could take even pick up his cup for a sip of tea, the table was jolted ever so slightly. The cause of said movement was Shock pushing on the table as she angrily moved her chair away.

Jack sighed as the necromancer stalked up the stairs, presumably to take refuge in "her" room for the remainder of the evening. This was going to be a long year….

* * *

"You can't stay inside all day, you know." Sally reminded Shock later that day.

The witch made no response, other than a brief shrug.

Her lack of reaction upset Sally, but she hadn't expected much of a response anyway. She knew why the younger girl didn't want to leave the mansion, but it still didn't seem logical.

Shock was avoiding the public eye in order to keep anyone from noticing the swelling in her midsection.

However, the queen knew hiding away wouldn't help the girl at all. Someone was sure to grow suspicious and would likely begin to watch Shock more closely when she went out again, trying to spot something out of the ordinary.

Sally brought this point up to the teenage witch, who simply rolled onto her side, her back facing the queen.

"I'll go outside later, after I find something I can actually wear" she said, her voice slightly mumbled by the thick comforter that was against her mouth.

Sally sighed.

There were times when she wondered what it would be like to raise a daughter, especially when the child would reach the teenage years. If the way Shock was acting at the moment was any indication of how teenage girls acted, Sally was grateful for having two sons.

Remembering the reason why Shock had retreated to her room earlier, Sally decided to change the subject.

She was hesitant to begin speaking, fearful that the sixteen-year-old would lash out at her if she said the wrong thing.

Finally, after several moments of trying to figure out the right way to voice her thoughts, the ragdoll spoke. "Why don't you want Lock to know about the baby?"

Shock seemed to tense up for a moment, before relaxing.

Her hand moved to her stomach, though it seemed like her hand moved on its own accord, without the witch knowing about it.

It took a while for her to speak, and when she did, her voice was unusually soft and a bit shaky, almost like she was keeping herself from sobbing.

"Cause I don't want to make him grow-up that fast. I can handle it; he couldn't." the spell-caster told her ragdoll friend.

Sally didn't know what to say about Shock's confession. It definitely was not the response she was expecting.

She expected worries about the devil just not reacting well to the news of the pregnancy, that he would leave Shock. Even if Shock was much stronger, emotionally, than Sally, the queen knew it would be even more difficult for the girl to go through her pregnancy if the father of her child wasn't supportive.

But, her worries were based on what would happen should Lock reactpositively to the news. Shock was worried about how having a baby would mean they'd both have to stop acting like children.

It would be easy for the witch, seeing how she acted more or less like an adult already.

For Lock…it would mean basically having to do a complete turn-around, personality-wise.

The silence that hung in the air was thick; Sally swore she was beginning to suffocate because of it.

"You know, he'll only be angrier if he finds out on his own" she finally said after several tense moments.

The green-haired necromancer sighed in annoyance. She told her hostess that she would tell her devilish lover of their unborn child, as soon as she knew the best way to do it.

Sally nodded, satisfied with the answer, and left the young woman alone again.

Once she was gone, Shock rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling.

"This sucks" she mumbled, though she knew there was no one to hear her complaint.

A slight twinge of pain hit her stomach, as though the fetus inside agreed with the statement.

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Nightmare Before Christmas or any characters that exist in the canon of the movie or any other forms of media. It is the property of Mr. Tim Burton, Mr. Henry Selick, and the wonderful men and women of both Touchstone Pictures and Disney.

I also don't own THIS version of Jack Jr. or Nicholas ( I say THIS version because Jack Jr. and Nicholas are two of the most common names for Jack's sons in this fandom). They belong to misa1, from this very site.

I own just the plot, some of the outfit ideas, and the unborn baby of Lock and Shock, aka The Mayor's worst nightmare.

Chapter Title Explanation: Anyone who is familiar with the legends of King Arthur will know of the island of Avalon. Avalon is basically Heaven in the eyes of the people of Camelot, a place where those who died are thought to have gone, if they were not wicked. However, Avalon was not only a home for the dead, it was a sanctuary for a group of people thought to be "faeries", who were very small and had the ability to see the future. Many of these people hid on Avalon, living on the land and nurturing their abilities without constantly being bothered to tell prophecies on demand. They used the thick mists that surrounded the island to keep both it, and themselves, hidden from the rest of the world.


	5. The Kingdom of Lothian and Orkney

Lock threw the game controller to the floor in frustration, a common sight in the tree house these past five weeks.

It wasn't that he was frustrated with the game, far from it. He had played and beaten that game over a million times since he'd "borrowed" it from some spoiled rich kid when he was nine. No, it wasn't the video game that was frustrating the devil, it was his girlfriend.

Actually, he wasn't even sure if he could still call her his girlfriend.

Shock had moved into the Skellington manor over a month ago, with no real explanation. Actually, she had given an explanation, but Lock didn't buy it.

A week after she had moved out, she had called the tree house and decided to explain why she'd left the place she'd called home for her entire afterlife. Apparently she wanted to learn how to brew medicinal potions from Sally; the ragdoll was an expert on the subject after all.

Lock had to call bullshit on that one. Shock had learned plenty of other spells and potions just from reading books, why couldn't she learn the medicinal ones the same way? It just didn't make any sense, and that annoyed Lock.

So, for the past five weeks, the devil racked his brain, trying to think of a reason for why his (ex?)girlfriend had moved into the home of the royal family.

It wasn't the _only _thing he thought of, of course, but it usually was front and center.

They had only been dating for two months, and then she suddenly moves out? And if that wasn't bad enough, she seemed to be avoiding him!

When it came to Barrel, Shock seemed a bit more relaxed, more willing to talk to him (though she still refused to spill the beans about why she was really living with Jack, Sally, and the twins), but if she saw Lock at all, she just stopped altogether.

It was completely unnerving, and it made the devilish young man a little nervous. They had fought plenty of times, both before and after they got together, and she'd never gotten this way before. They hadn't had any sort of argument in the past week before she moved out, even though she'd been so moody for nearly a month at the time and the littlest things set her off. So, why had she left?

It just didn't make any sense…Nothing made sense to him anymore.

* * *

"You know, I don't think Shock took any of her candy with her" Barrel said, elbowing his cohort in the arm.

Lock scowled and shoved the fourteen-year-old ghoul away from him.

The still-somewhat-chubby former trick-or-treater frowned. He was just trying to get his friend to lighten up, and this was the best way he knew how to do it. He had tried it a few times since Lock began actually showing how upset he was about Shock leaving, but it never worked.

"C'mon, let's just go in and take some truffles and some of those butterscotch candies. We can save the peppermints for her when she comes back" he prodded again.

Lock turned his yellow-and-amber-colored eyes to the younger monster, giving him a cold glare.

Barrel looked away; the fact that the devil's irises were barely distinguishable from his sclera always made it somewhat unnerving whenever the ghoul was on the receiving line of a glare. A silence filled the room, adding to the tension that already thickened the air.

Unable to take the silence but apparently unwilling to strike up a conversation, Barrel switched on the television. The screen was nothing but static, so the ghoul got up and whacked the side of the television to clear up the picture. After a few more smacks, the image of a dancing zombie woman came in clear.

Recognizing the movie that was playing, the green-haired ghoul grinned and sat down once again.

Lock, on the other hand, wasn't as happy to see the Bruce Campbell film as his younger friend.

Knowing he would get bored if he stayed, he stood up, gave a brief farewell to Barrel, and stepped into the cage-elevator, using it to lower himself to the ground. He was able to get down without using the elevator, but he wasn't really in the mood today.

He didn't really have a plan for what he was going to do, so he simply walked towards the town, hoping he'd find something to entertain himself there.

* * *

He couldn't believe his good fortune. Just earlier that day he had been wondering about the witch he hadn't seen in over a month. He steps into the town square and who should he see but Shock, sitting on the rim of the fountain?

Lock paused, wondering if she had seen him, but it appeared she had not.

The honeydew-skinned necromancer didn't seem to be doing anything, just relaxing. Occasionally she reached into a small bag that was placed by her side, taking out and eating some fire ants.

Wait…Shock hated fire ants! For as long as he had known her, Lock could never remember his witchy cohort enjoying the taste of the poisonous insects. In fact, she would always spit them out and rinse out her mouth with about a liter of root beer whenever the devil and the ghoul tricked her into eating some.

Now curious, the redhead made his way towards the green-haired enchantress, being careful not to step on anything that would alert her to his presence. Due to his caution, it took at least twice as long to make it to the fountain, but he knew her reaction would be hilarious.

Once he was at the fountain, he sat down behind her (Shock was apparently spacing out and still hadn't noticed him) and dipped the spade of his long, rubbery tail into the cool, green water. The dark violet dress that Shock was wearing was unbuttoned on a small section in the back, so Lock slipped his cold tail onto the exposed skin.

The necromancer gave a surprised shriek, before whipping around, eyes shut, and punching the devil in the face.

Lock yelped in pain, massaging his jaw where her fist had connected.

Shock opened her eyes, revealing grass-green irises, before narrowing them at her boyfriend. "Lock? What are you doing here?" she demanded to know, as if she expected his being in town meant something horrible.

Lock, however, did not answer her question. Instead, he found himself staring at her stomach. While he had noticed her stomach and chest had been expanding for some time before she left, he never really thought much of it, particularly the growth in her stomach. However, now he was noticing it. To be fair, he probably wouldn't have noticed her swelling abdomen if he hadn't known her for as long as he did. The dark fabric of her dress disguised the growth quite well.

"My eyes are up here, you dumbass!" Shock shouted, obviously annoyed with the fact that the demon hadn't answered her question.

"Before I tell you why I'm here, why don't you tell me why you're really living with Jack and Sally" Lock told his girlfriend, who paled considerably.

She looked away, mumbling that she already told him weeks ago. The yellow-and-amber-eyed demon scowled, replying that he'd known her long enough to be able to tell when she was lying.

Sighing, Shock regained eye contact, saying, "It's complicated, Lock. I promise…I'll tell you soon, when we're alone."

Lock nodded, satisfied enough with the answer.

For a few moments, neither of them said a word, until Lock turned to Shock, and asked her the question that had been plaguing him since she had moved out.

"You still wanna be together?"

The question wasn't worrisome, but rather a way of asking for confirmation. He wanted to know what the state of their relationship was at this point.

Instead of verbally answering, the witch pressed her lips to his. When they parted, she smirked slightly at his expression (he had been taken aback by the surprise kiss) and walked away, not bothering to pick up the fire ants that were still spilled onto the ground.

Satisfied with how his "reunion" with Shock had gone, Lock decided to head back to the tree house. If Barrel was still watching that stupid _Evil Dead 2, _he would make him stop, and if not…well, he wasn't expecting the ghoul to be done with the flick.

* * *

Disclaimer: I don't own Nightmare or any of the characters that belong to the movie. They belong to Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Touchstone Pictures, and Disney. Yes, I know the last two are basically the same thing, just different names. Maybe I should ask Santa to bring me the rights to Nightmare for Christmas. I don't own Evil Dead 2...I honestly can't remember who does. I do own the baby/babies in Shock's belly, though!

I don't hate Evil Dead 2, in case anyone's wondering. Actually, I love it. I don't find it much of a horror movie, but that might be the reason I love it. I mean, the scene where Ash's wife/fiancee is dancing around after being killed? That had to be a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment...or something.

Before I explain the chapter title, I just want to say "Merry Christmas" to my best friend on Fanfiction, Inferno Shock. Merry Christmas, Shockie. I'm not really happy with this chapter, but maybe you will be. After the wonderful gift you gave me, and the wonderful gifts you're going to give me...you deserve _something._

Chapter Title Explanation: The Kingdom of Lothian and Orkney, also called the Kingdom of Out Isles, is the home of Queen Morgause (half-sister of Arthur Pendragon) and her husband, King Lot. In the story of Arthur's gaining dominance over the northern half of England and the story of Mordred's conception, we are often taken to the Kingdom of Lothian and Orkney. There we see not only Morgause, but her four sons-Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth. The four boys are hidden away from the world, save the priest who always tells them stories, and as a result, they lack the ability to function in environments with love and caring.


	6. Galahad of Corbin

Another month had passed since the envy-haired witch and her cayenne-haired lover had met face-to-face at the fountain in the town square, and Shock was beginning to dread her next meeting with him.

She was just over four months along in her pregnancy, and the bulge in her midsection was now noticeable even under her baggiest and darkest clothes. She tried to hide the swelling underneath a long dark violet cashmere coat that Jack had lent her money to buy a few weeks after she moved in, but she knew it wouldn't be long before the curve of her stomach was visible even through the dark fabric of the coat.

So, the young witch had thrown herself into her studies, constantly looking through the spell-books she had borrowed from the town library. (Her own books were still at the tree house, and she was too apprehensive about revealing her condition to her friends to retrieve them).

She was attempting to find a spell that she could use to enchant her clothes so they would hide the swelling of her abdomen from sight and make it intangible while the garments were worn. The child inside would be unaffected, or at the very least, it wouldn't be in any serious danger because of the enchantments.

Sally had been trying to convince the teenage mother-to-be to just admit she was pregnant, rather than attempt to hide the growth as the pregnancy progressed.

The only result her efforts were rewarded with was Shock locking the door of the guest room whenever she was at the manor, and refusing to allow the queen entrance.

This had lasted for three days before the ragdoll agreed to not act like she was upset with Shock's decision to continue to hide her pregnancy.

It was clear she was still unhappy with the idea, especially the fact that the former female henchman of the Boogie Man still had not told the father that she was carrying his child. But, as long as she made a sporting attempt to hide her displeasure, Sally would not have to worry about her female housemate turning her away.

This was for the best, as the necromancer found her symptoms were increasing rapidly in intensity over each passing day.

She was eating what felt like at least half her body weight (though it was likely much less than that) every day, though she attempted to will herself to consume less.

The queen told her that she would not hunger for so much food unless it was needed for the baby and instructed her to listen to her body.

Whether it was Sally's advice or her pregnancy-addled brain that kept Shock from lowering her caloric intake, the witch was unsure of.

But, while the increased desire to eat was annoying, that was nothing compared to her increased need to use the bathroom, or worse, her returning morning sickness. It seemed as though she spent all day, everyday, either in "her" bedroom, the kitchen, or the bathroom.

The frequent need to relieve her bladder was tolerable, though the rare occasion where she had been unable to reach the washroom had left her embarrassed.

Sally, once again acting like she was Shock's older sister, told her that she shouldn't be so upset, but the prideful witch always beat herself a bit mentally whenever she found herself in the embarrassing situation.

No, the need to almost constantly relieve herself was annoying, and a cause of embarrassment at times, but it was the return of her morning sickness that made Shock once again dread being pregnant.

She had believed that the horrible symptom from early in the first trimester had vanished weeks ago; once her appetite increased, it seemed she had switched the inability to keep food in her stomach, with the inability to keep food out of her stomach. In the past week and a half or so, however, she found herself with her head in a wastebasket or the toilet at all hours of the day and night.

The fact that she was almost always hungry did not help matters, as she was unable to keep herself from vomiting by not eating.

Shock had attempted to brew some potions to soothe her stomach, but none of them ever came out right.

The pumpkin queen of Halloween Town promised she would make the medicines for her temporary housemate, when she returned from the Fish-Gal's lakeside home.

Shock sighed, leaning against the headboard of the bed and rubbing her stomach with the tip of her index finger.

From the time she knew they had been laid, the fishlings had never even crossed the green-haired witch's mind. It was now that they were hatching that she had any opinion of them, and she honestly despised them at the moment.

* * *

Sally watched as Fish-Gal once again grabbed one of her eggs, lifting the soft-shelled egg and briefly bringing it above the surface of the water, before dipping it underneath again.

The amphibious woman repeated this process at least a dozen times with each of the eggs.

Each time she lifted an egg out of the water, the semi-transparent, plastic-looking shell that incased the unborn fishling looked a little thinner, a little softer. It would not be long before the children of the Fish-Gal emerged from their eggs.

The ragdoll had requested to view the hatching when the eggs were originally laid, curious about the process. Fish-Gal had at first been hesitant, but had agreed after speaking with the Devil, who had recently become her "boyfriend". (The father of her offspring had revealed himself to be much like an animal-mating with a female to produce offspring, only to abandon the brood and the mother before birth).

The Devil was not present at the moment. He was with Jack, speaking about his part in the next Halloween celebration.

In years past, during the first few weeks between one Halloween and the next, Jack had began to take the residents who would have major roles in the celebration and figure out what their task would be.

Fish-Gal was meant to have her meeting today, but had declined for obvious reasons. So, she and Devil had chosen to switch the dates of their meetings; he would go today, and she would go next week. By that time her offspring would be able to be left alone for a few hours, as long as she left them food to eat while she was gone.

"How much longer do you think it will take?" Sally questioned as her companion lifted another egg up to the water's surface.

The rubbery shell was almost completely transparent now, the fetus within swiping a hand at the shell from the inside.

Fish-Gal responded by saying she did not know exactly how much longer the process would take, but she had a feeling it would not be long.

Sally nodded, glad to know she would not have to stay much longer.

It was not that she did not enjoy the Fish-Gal's company, or want to share in her joy. It was just that she had left Jacky and Nicholas in the care of Dr. Finkelstein and Jewell.

The two of them never complained about caring for the young princes on the rare occasion Jack and Sally requested they babysit, but it was clear they'd rather spend their time doing other things.

* * *

Fish-Gal was right; it did not take long for the end of the hatching process to begin.

About an hour after Sally had asked, the first of the eggs had floated to the surface of the water, its shell completely see-through.

The plastic-y substance tore away as the small fish-child pushed its way out of the place that had been its home for the past few months. The other four followed suit, each seeming more desperate to leave the egg than the one before it.

By the end of a half-hour, there were five baby fishlings, two girls and three boys (the females had frills on their tailfins, while the males lacked this feature), swimming around their mother.

Sally could not tell the babies apart, excepting being able to tell the boys from the girls.

Each and every one looked like its brothers and sisters: fin-like ears pressed against its head, scaly skin that was a pale-grey color.

The little things also appeared to be blind; they're eyes appeared glassy and they kept bumping into each other and their mother.

Sally opened her mouth to voice this concern to the new mother, wondering why Fish-Gal did not seem bothered by her offspring's appearance or behavior.

Her eyes flew open a second later, when Fish-Gal grabbed one of her sons by the head, and pushed him underneath the water.

The fish-boy struggled for a few seconds before relaxing; realizing that being underwater would not harm him.

Sally knew this as well, but she was still surprised at the seemingly out-of-nowhere behavior from her friend. How was this helping anything?

As if answering her question, the newborn surfaced again, cooing softly. This time, his eyes were clear and he glanced around, as though surveying his surroundings, before diving under the water.

Fish-Gal went to each of her children and performed the same action of pushing their heads under the water.

One by one, the fishlings resurfaced and dove under the water. It was difficult to see what they were doing, the green color of the water made it impossible to see past a certain depth.

Fish-Gal explained that the fishlings would eat the remains of their eggs for the first few days, until they were able to eat harder foods.

Now that the fishlings were hatched, Sally bid the Fish-Gal farewell and went to relieve her creator and his wife of the duty of caring for her sons, before heading back to the Manor.

* * *

Later that night, Shock lay on her back with her stomach revealed, feeling rather annoyed.

Being uncovered, her seventeen-week-old baby bump was easily noticeable.

And, though the necromancer was still upset by the size of her stomach, that wasn't the reason she was so upset.

No, the reason for her annoyance was none other than the Christmas Town doctor, Dr. Frost. He had come to Halloween Town to assess her condition, make sure both Shock and her unborn child were healthy.

Since she had decided to keep the baby, the witch did not usually protest to the monthly appointments.

However, she did always feel annoyed at the procedures he performed to make sure everything in her pregnancy was going smoothly.

At the moment, he was padding his hands across the skin of her swollen stomach, pressing down slightly at certain points. His hands were very cold, and Shock had to will herself to not shake.

Several times, he paused during the examination, keeping his cold fingers on the same spot for over five minutes.

It had taken the green-haired teenager all the self-control she had to not scream at the Christmas doctor to hurry up.

After a while, he finished the external exam.

Shock began to sit up and pull her top down once again, but before she could do so, Dr. Frost instructed her to lie down once again.

"Why?" the witch asked, sounding rather upset that she had to show off her stomach any longer.

The doctor said that he wanted to check the baby's heartbeat, pulling out a stethoscope to help enforce the idea.

The former female henchman of Oogie Boogie sighed, but lay back down on her bed.

Dr. Frost then put the ear-buds of the stethoscope into his ears, placing the cold, disk-like end onto the witch's stomach. After a few minutes, he straightened up, saying, "Well, they appear to be doing just fine."

Relieved that the appointment was finally over, Shock sat up and pulled down her dark tank-top to cover her stomach once again. Dr. Frost went to leave, but Shock made him pause by asking what she thought was a simple question.

"Why did you say 'they seem fine'? You're only talking to me." She asked him.

The doctor paused and blinked, looking as though he was confused as to why she would ask just a question.

"Why, I was referring to your babies." He explained, as thought it were the most obvious answer in the world.

* * *

Disclaimer: Nightmare Before Christmas, Sally, Jack, Shock, Dr. Finkelstein, Jewell, Fish-Gal and Devil are all owned by Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Disney, and Touchstone Pictures. The characters of Jack Jr. and Nicholas (Jack and Sally's twin sons) and Dr. Frost are owned by misa1. As for me, I own this plot and Shock's unborn baby…or should I say "babies"?

How's that for a cliffhanger? Though, considering the last chapter's disclaimer, you probably should have considered the possibility that Shock was having more than one baby. You'll see her actual reaction in the next chapter, though I'm sure you can all guess how she feels.

Chapter Title Explanation: One of King Arthur's most famous and loyal knights was a French knight called Sir Lancelot Du Lac, originally named Galahad. Sir Lancelot was known to be the best of the knights, able to take down every opponent without killing them. On one of his quests, he rescued the princess of Corbin, Elaine, from being boiled for the rest of her days, a curse put on her by a jealous Morgan Le Fay. The young princess fell in love with the knight, and, with the help of her former nanny and her butler, manages to get Lancelot into bed with her. Lancelot is deeply upset by the loss of his virginity, which he also thinks results in him losing his ability to perform miracles. He leaves Elaine the day after their love-making, not knowing that she is pregnant. He never hears of Elaine again, until a year later, when his cousin returns from Corbin and announces that the princess Elaine had given birth to a son named Galahad, named after his father, the former Galahad Du Lac.


	7. Candle in the Wind

Shock felt the blood, and thus, the color, train from her face. She had not felt the muscles in her face move at all, but she must have taken on a look of fear or a similar emotion, for the Christmas Town doctor looked at her with concern.

"Are you alright?" he asked her. The witch shook her head quickly, trying to clear her head before answering.

"Yeah, I'm fine" she said. It was a lie, but she had gotten so good at telling them over the years that it wasn't surprising when Dr. Frost believed her.

The small man with the icicle-shaped nose told the teenager that he would return next month, and then he left her alone.

Usually after the doctor evacuated the premises, she would get up and either get something to eat, use the washroom, or grab one of the many books the royal family possessed to read. This time, however, she didn't move from the bed.

Whether she was unwilling to move, or unable to, even she could not say.

She felt her eyes burning as she stared up at the ceiling.

She cursed herself for reacting this way, closing her eyes and pressing down on her eyelids with her thumbs. It was a technique she had come up with when she was thirteen, to keep herself from crying around the boys after her stupid hormones made her start to actually cry at certain things that used to not bother her at all.

She shouldn't have to be doing this. Sure, she wasn't expecting to be having two babies, but that didn't mean she was afraid. She had essentially been raising Lock and Barrel for years, and boys of any age are a lot harder than even a couple newborns. She could handle raising two babies just fine.

If Lock helped, it would be even easier, but if not, she could do it on her own. The witch wasn't afraid of what the future held.

So, then, why did it feel like her heart had dropped into her stomach? Why couldn't she move? No matter how hard she tried to will herself to get off the bed, she simply could not.

Sally's voice wafted into the room from downstairs, and Shock acted as though she had not heard.

The queen's voice came again moments later.

"I'm not feeling so good. I'm just going to go to bed" the necromancer called, responding to Sally asking if she was eating dinner with the rest of them.

A moment of silence passed, before the ragdoll told her temporary housemate that she would put some of the meal into the refrigerator, so the expectant witch could eat later.

Once she heard Sally's soft footsteps going down the staircase, Shock snapped her fingers, causing the lights in the room to dim.

She wasn't really tired, but she had nothing better to do than sleep, or at least attempt to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, the green-haired witch awoke to the smell of slightly burnt pancakes and overripe and juiced oranges. Having skipped dinner the night before, she was very willing to partake in breakfast. She quickly changed out of her nightgown and into a simple dress before going downstairs.

"Watch it, Junior!" she screamed at the young heir as he ran past her on the way down the somewhat narrow stairs, knocking into her leg.

Jack Jr. paused and looked up at her, scowling; he hated being referred to as "Junior", preferring to be called Jacky.

The necromancer ignored the look Jacky was giving her and simply continued to descend, gently pushing him out of the way once she reached the step he was standing on.

The boy gave a shout of protest, which was completely ignored by the teenager.

* * *

"What did Dr. Frost tell you last night, Shock? How is the baby doing?" Sally asked at the breakfast table.

The young woman flinched slightly, not looking up from the bowl of runny oatmeal with mantis heads that she was eating.

After a moment passed, she finally parted her thin lips and answered.

"It's babies, actually. And they're both fine," she told the ragdoll, still not looking up from the oatmeal.

No one spoke, and Shock was certain that her cheeks were changing color again, based on how warm they were. Finally, it was Nicholas who broke the silence, and the tension.

"Hey, Shock?"

The witch looked up and turned her head to face the younger of the two princes.

"You guys keep talking about your babies, but I never see you with a baby. Where are your babies?"

Despite her poor attitude, the former female Boogie's Boy couldn't help but smirk. Somehow succeeding to suppress a giggle, she told the young prince that she would show him her babies sometime in spring.

"Will the Easter Bunny be bringing them to you, like he brings us chocolate eggs?" Jacky asked innocently.

Shock sighed and shook her head.

"I wish" she muttered, more to herself than to either of the twins, placing her hand on the swollen bump that was her stomach.

Jack Jr. blinked in confusion, and for a moment, it appeared as though he was going to ask where Shock was getting her babies from. Fortunately for his parents, who were not looking forward to giving their children "the talk", the boy simply announced that he was finished with breakfast and left the table, heading upstairs to the bedroom he shared with his brother. Nicholas followed suit, clearly worried that one of his toys would be wrecked by his rowdy sibling.

Once both boys had left the table, Jack turned his attention to Shock.

"You're having twins?" he asked, though the tone of his voice made it clear he knew the answer.

Shock looked down at her bowl of oatmeal again, grabbing a small plate of grainy scrambled eggs before nodding. Her lips moved slightly as she nodded, making it seem like she was muttering to herself, but the skeleton did not comment on it. He knew she would either simply deny that she was muttering, storm back upstairs to the guest room, or start an argument that Jack knew that he could not win.

The king of Halloween moved his lips slightly, no sound coming from his mouth. It seemed as though he was attempting to speak, but his mouth was preventing him from doing so. Finally, he managed to get the words out.

"What are you going to do now?"

Almost immediately, the witch turned her green eyes to the skeleton. Her gaze was extremely cold, yet Jack felt as though she was burning into his skull with her eyes. She didn't speak, but he could tell what her silent response was, just from the look she was shooting him.

"Shock…I know you think you can handle raising a baby. I believe you can as well. However, raising twins is different from taking care of one baby, even with two people involved. Sally and I struggled for the first couple of years. Even now, we still have troubles raising our twins, and we're adults. You and Lock….you might not be children, but you're still young. Do you really think either of you is ready for this kind of responsibility?" he asked, keeping his voice low, as to not make the witch think he was trying to attack her.

Shock bolted out of her chair, causing it to fall backwards and through poor Zero, who happened to be floating past. The outer edges of her eyes seemed to turn a sort of green-grey color for a moment, before reverting back to normal.

She closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose, as though she believed keeping the breath inside would cause her to explode.

"I'm not a nine-year-old anymore, Jack" she began, saying his name with no small amount of contempt, "so stop talking to me like one. You think I won't be able to handle my kids just because I don't have all the money you have, or because I don't have a ton of people who would be willing to take them all day if I got tired of them? I'll have no trouble taking care of them. Hell, I'll be a better parent then you are, since I'll actually teach my kids things myself, instead of letting the goddamn townspeople teach them everything besides walking and talking!"

After this final outburst, the room went silent. The only sound was the sound of Jacky and Nicholas bouncing a rubber skull on the floor upstairs.

It took several moments, which seemed more like hours, for Jack to find a way to respond to Shock's angry words.

However, the moment he opened his mouth, the expectant witch raced up the stairs, stopping at the top to catch her breath before heading into the guest room.

She slammed the door behind her in anger. Only a second seemed to pass, however, before her anger turned to what she could only indentify (though she was embarrassed to indentify it as such) as fear.

She had been so confident of herself when she gave her rebuttal against Jack's statement about how hard raising twins would be at her age.

However, she wasn't really as confident as she had seemed. In reality, Jack's words had made her realize just how hard this was going to be.

And, for the first time since she had first died and come to the land of Halloween, the green-haired necromancer felt terrified.

* * *

Disclaimer: I really don't know why I keep writing these things. I mean, after all this time, you should all know I own almost nothing in any of the stories I write. However, I suppose I should give credit where credit is due. Nightmare Before Christmas and all characters pertaining to it, meaning Shock, Jack, Sally, and Zero, belong to Mr. Tim Whatever-his-last-name-is Burton, Henry ….Something Selick, Disney, and Touchstone pictures. Jack Jr., Nicholas, and Dr. Frost belong to Misa1. And the plot, as well as Shock's unborn children, belongs to me.

And, before anyone asks, no, the title has nothing to do with the Disney movie, "Pete's Dragon". I've never even seen the film.

Chapter Title Explanation: Unlike previous titles for the story, this one does not reference a specific tale in the legends of Arthur Pendragon. Rather, it is the title of the final book in T.H. White's collection of stories, The Once and Future King. This is the shortest of the four books in the collection, and arguably one of the saddest, as it documents the fall of Arthur's kingdom. The king is forced to sentence his wife to death for treason; a majority of his loyal knights are killed by Lancelot when he comes to rescue her; and he must fight against his nephew-son Mordred. In the end, Arthur ends up killing his son, but not before Mordred has a chance to fatally wound Arthur. Rather than be left to perish, however, the beloved monarch was sent to Avalon to sleep. And there is it believed he still rests, until his country needs him once more.


	8. The Saint's Stone Beehive

Shock sighed as she looked at her reflection in the mirror that was hung on the door of the first floor washroom of the Skellington Manor. It had been six weeks since she had learned that she was pregnant with two babies, rather than one, and her stomach was clearly showing it.

Despite being a little less than six months along in her pregnancy, the necromancer looked like she was nearly at her due date.

If the witch had any say in the matter, she actually would be nearly ready to deliver.

She was somewhat nervous about having to give birth, but the desire to rid herself of the constant weight in her stomach outweighed her nervousness.

Her pregnancy symptoms had not faded at all in the past month and a half. In fact, they had gotten worse.

To add to her discomfort, she also had to deal with the fact that the unborn twins had gotten bored with their game of remaining almost completely still. Now she was forced to remain in motion during what seemed like all hours of the day, otherwise she would be attacked from the inside by her unborn offspring. This made sleeping at night almost impossible, as whenever Shock tried to make herself comfortable, one or both of the babies would begin squirming, causing her to jolt out of sleep before she could actually fall asleep.

To make things worse, Jack and Sally were still trying to convince her to tell Lock about her pregnancy, before the children arrived.

Shock would leave the room whenever they tried to convince her, if it was possible. If not, then she simply allowed her mind to wander, ignoring everything the king and queen said.

* * *

The older son of Jack and Sally sighed.

Once again, his mother and father were trying to convince Shock to tell Lock about her babies. And, once again, Shock was protesting, very loudly.

Jack Jr. had heard this argument several times since the necromancer had come to live with them, and he was getting tired of it.

He didn't understand why Shock wouldn't tell Lock that she was going to have a baby. He also didn't understand why his mother and father didn't tell Lock themselves, if they want him to know so badly.

A squeaking noise from the direction of the door brought Jacky out of her reverie.

Quickly, he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep; he wasn't supposed to be awake at this time of night.

However, the door was not opened by any of the older members of the household. Rather, it was Jacky's twin brother, Nicholas, who stepped through the open door.

"You're really bad at pretending" Nicholas said with a laugh as he walked past his brother on his way to his bed.

Jacky scowled as he sat himself up, turning to face his twin who was now getting back into his own bed.

A crashing sound came from below them; apparently someone had knocked over something in the parlor.

The twins grabbed their respective stuffed toys-Nicholas grabbed his bat, Fang, and Jack Jr. reached for his stuffed tarantula, named Cannonball. The boys were somewhat embarrassed by the fact that they still slept with their stuffed animals, even though their mother assured them that they were not too old for them.

Once they realized that there was no real reason for them to be frightened, the six-year-olds placed their toys back on top of their pillows.

They soon heard three very familiar sets of footsteps walking past their bedroom door, coupled with three equally familiar voices.

Ignoring the fact that they were supposed to have been asleep hours ago, the boys dashed over to the door, pressing the sides of their skulls to the hard wooden door.

"You need to tell him, Shock. You only have about three months, if that, before you're due," they heard their father tell the necromancer.

A second later, said necromancer sighed in annoyance, before answering.

"Well, if you can think of a way for me to tell him without freaking him out, I'll be happy to tell him about the babies," she responded, her voice tinged with sarcasm.

The twins heard Jack sigh.

"We should all go to bed," the children heard their mother say, though they could barely hear her soft voice from the end of the hallway, "It's already so late."

Both Jack and Shock could be heard muttering their agreement.

Jack Jr. and Nicholas leaned against the door until they heard their parent's bedroom and the guest bedroom doors close, at which point they decided to go back to bed themselves.

* * *

"Ow! He bit me!" Jack Jr. exclaimed, putting his injured finger into his mouth and sucking on it.

His twin brother placed his hand over his mouth, trying to muffle the sound of his laughter, though it was clear that Jack Jr. knew that he was being laughed at.

The lime-green fishling laughed as well, revealing the four fish-fangs that had emerged from his gums in the past week.

The heir to the throne scowled at the six-week-old monster.

"It's not funny, Beck!" he scolded.

Beckett, or "Beck" for short, simply laughed again, smacking the water in front of him with one of his webbed hands.

Jacky frowned, upset that the baby wasn't taking him seriously. Nicholas patted his brother's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him, a gesture that seemed to go unnoticed.

Sally had taken the twins to Fish-Gal and Devil's home by the lake, most likely to make sure they didn't bother Shock, who had not been feeling well that morning. The young boys were happy to come along, because they wanted to meet the fishlings.

However, the novelty of the smaller monsters was beginning to wear off, mostly due to the fact that the fishlings were still too young to be on dry land, and Jack and Sally's sons could not swim very well, and thus, were not allowed to be in water that was more than waist-deep.

While the infants were able to swim close enough to the skeletons to allow some interaction, they quickly lost interest and returned to deeper water to play with their siblings.

Beck chose to do just that, swimming over to his jade-colored sister, who was appropriately named Jade, and bit into her shoulder.

Jade screamed, more in rage than in actual pain, and swam underneath her brother before pushing against him from below, clearly trying to lift him out of the water.

The lime-green male squealed, even though his sister was having no luck removing his body from the water. The sound caught the attention of Fish-Gal, who was having a discussion with Sally and the Devil.

Fish-Gal sighed, excused herself from the conversation, and entered the lake.

She swam over to the brawling infants and pulled them apart.

Beck quickly swam away. Deciding that his sister was a less-than-ideal playmate, he decided to join his brothers, emerald-green Rook and moss-green Perch, in playing a game of catch with a gutted clam.

Jade gurgled in his direction as he swam away, before returning to what she had been doing before he had bitten her.

The problem resolved, the amphibious woman returned to the land, pausing only to remove young Bleu from the marshy ground by the shore, which the fishling had somehow managed to get stuck in.

Besides being the "runt" of the group of hatchlings, Bleu was also unique due to the fact that she possessed turquoise-colored scales, unlike her siblings who were all some shade of green. This trait was apparently inherited from her father's family, as Fish-Gal insisted that no one in her family had ever possessed scales of such a color before Bleu was born.

After being pushed away from the game of catch by Perch and Rook, Beckett decided to rejoin the twin princes nearer to the shoreline.

Jack Jr. hesitantly held out his hand, as if offering a handshake.

The fishling grinned, grabbing onto Jacky's boney fingers.

Jacky returned the grin, though his smile faded when he realized that the infant was going to attempt to bite his fingers. He quickly yanked his hand away, being careful not to hurt the baby as he did so.

"I hope Shock's babies aren't this bad, whenever she gets 'em." the heir to the throne told his brother, who nodded in agreement.

"When are they coming, anyway?" the younger brother asked, receiving a shrug in return.

Neither boy seemed to notice that the adults had stopped talking. Both Fish-Gal and the Devil shared looks of shock, while the queen looked rather embarrassed.

"What are they talking about, if I may ask?" the red-skinned man asked, taking care to be polite as he did so.

Sally hesitated, trying to think of how she should respond. Finally, she sighed and answered the question.

"Shock is pregnant…That's why she moved in with our family a few months ago. I knew this was going to be a difficult time for her, and I wanted to help."

Fish-Gal nodded, though she still looked somewhat confused, and Sally believed she knew why.

"She's been using spells to disguise herself. She doesn't want anyone to know yet." The ragdoll answered before the question could even be asked.

The Fish-Gal then asked whether or not the witch's boyfriend and their companion knew about her pregnancy, to which Sally shook her head.

"Jack keeps trying to convince her to tell Lock, but Shock is very…strong-willed" Sally said with a slight chuckle, knowing that most people would rather refer to the teenager as being "stubborn", rather than the more polite term that Sally had just used.

Her amphibious friend opened her mouth to respond, but before she could speak, the twins came over, their pants completely soaked.

"Mama, can we have a snack? We're hungry" Jack Jr. asked his mother, grabbing onto her hand and shaking her arm slightly. Nicholas grabbed her other hand and repeated the action.

"It's almost time for dinner, so I'm afraid you can't have a snack. It'll ruin your appetite" the queen told her young sons, who both groaned, upset that they would not be allowed a treat before dinner.

Deciding it was time to return home, Sally grabbed the twins' hands in her own and began to lead them away, ignoring their protests. She paused once, before she was too far away to be heard over the playful splashing of Fish-Gal's offspring, to turn around and request that Fish-Gal and Devil not tell anyone else about the necromancer's condition, continuing home only when they swore to keep the secret.

* * *

"You did _what?" _Shock questioned the skeletal princes angrily, clearly using all of her willpower to not use her magic to protect them.

The witch had just been informed of the fact that Jacky and Nicholas had revealed her pregnancy to Fish-Gal and the Devil. Sally had told her that the newly informed monsters had promised to keep her pregnancy a secret, but that didn't mean Shock wasn't still angry.

"I told you two a million times; I don't want anyone to know about this yet. And, even if I did, it's not your business to tell anyone. You don't even know where babies come from, for God's sake!" she told the young boys.

The twins turned their heads away from her, feeling ashamed that they had told someone her secret, especially since they had not meant to tell anyone.

Shock sighed in exasperation.

"Just…go to your mother." She told them, waving her hand to dismiss them from her room.

Jack Jr. nodded and ran out of the room, heading towards the spiral staircase.

Nicholas went to follow, but stopped as he reached the doorway.

"Sorry…" he told the pregnant necromancer, turning his head just enough so he could see her over his shoulder.

"It's fine. Just go." She told him, sounding more insistent than before. The younger boy nodded slightly, before running after his brother.

Once both boys were gone, Shock closed the door and shut off the light, before lying on the bed.

"I hope you two won't be this much trouble. Though considering how your father and I were…You'll probably be about ten times worse" she muttered, placing her hand on the large bulge in her abdomen.

She couldn't help but smirk slightly as she felt the newborn infants shift around inside of her, as though they were attempting to respond to her statement.

"Little brats…" she mumbled, closing her eyes as sleep overtook her.

* * *

Disclaimer: The Nightmare Before Christmas does not belong to me. I don't even own any merchandise from the movie, besides a DVD. The movie, as well as all characters that are canon to it, is owned by Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Disney, and Touchstone Pictures. The merchandise is owned by…many, many people. Jack Jr. and Nicholas Skellington belong to misa1. Shock's babies, the fishlings, and the plot, however, all belong to me, so…we got that.

This chapter can be considered a late birthday present for my good friend (honestly, I think she was supposed to be my sister, but one of us was born to the wrong parents), Inferno Shock. Sorry about your figurines, love. Hopefully this makes you feel better. I would say "Surprise", but you already knew about this so…."NO SURPRISE!"

Chapter Title Explanation: Queen Morgause and King Lot had four sons together (though whether or not Lot was the father of all, if any, of the boys can be debated), Gawaine, Agravaine, Gaheris, and Gareth. These boys loved to be told stories, but their father was often away at the wars, fighting against the Englishmen to the south, and their mother was usually too busy to tell them stories, save for the tale of how her father was killed and her mother was assumedly raped by the cruel king, Uther Pendragon. So, in order to get their fill of stories, the young princes often sought out St. Toirdealbach, the man who had taught them to read and write. St. Toirdealbach lived in a small building, shaped like a beehive but made out of stone, and told the boys many stories. He also teaches the princes, both the typical lessons of reading and writing, as well as the ethics of war, and how it is not right for knights to murder the unarmed peasants.


	9. The Sword's Revelation

Two months remained before she was due and that was two months too long for the teenage witch. She had felt ready to deliver for weeks now.

In all honesty, she had been tempted to look up spells that would induce labor and had only been stopped by the fact that every single spell and potion she found warned against actually using them. They said that doing so would cause horrible disfigurements, disabilities, if not death for the newborns. The fact that most of the induction potions and spells also warned that using them could harm the mother as well was also helpful in dissuading her.

Still, the sooner the little bastards decided they were ready to come out, the better. Her pregnancy had not been easy to deal with, even before she had known that she was pregnant.

She had gone through total hell for months, had a short reprieve that lasted maybe six weeks at the most, then went back to experiencing hell again, only this time, it was worse.

The fact that it was getting harder to hide her pregnancy definitely didn't help matters. Her spells and charms were still in effect, but that was all she had going for her.

Many of her dresses and various other outfits needed to be tailored in order to actually fit, and since the charms had been placed on the clothing, if she couldn't wear them, the bulge in her abdomen was painfully obvious.

As such, she had become something of a hermit, like she had been when her pregnancy first started to become evident and she didn't know the illusion charms. And, just like the last time, Sally kept insisting that she get out of the mansion on occasion, only to be shot down by the witch.

Jack agreed with his wife.

"Really, Shock, everyone's going to know you were pregnant once you give birth" he told his houseguest one gloomy morning just after breakfast. "Why are you bothering to hide it?"

Shock, in response, popped a green gumball (the sour type, if Jack remembered correctly, and one stolen from one of the twins, as well) into her mouth.

Obviously, that was meant to show that she wasn't interested in answering his question.

The Pumpkin King attempted to coax an answer out of the teenager, only to be ignored each time.

After the third attempt, he decided to give up and go to work.

* * *

"Your babies are going to come soon, right?" Shock turned her gaze to the younger of the Skellington twins, not even bothering to move her head.

When she didn't say anything, Nicholas repeated the question.

"I guess" the pregnant witch responded curtly.

Nicholas looked at his brother, silently asking him why Shock was acting this way.

Jack Jr. shrugged, returning his attention to the toy airplane that Santa Claus had given him last Christmas.

The younger of the two brothers scowled; he hated when his brother ignored him, which was happening more and more frequently.

He placed the vampire teddy bear he had been playing with onto the floor and walked over to where Shock was seated. Due to his skeletal body, he was able to step very lightly, allowing him to sneak up on the witch without being noticed, at least not right away.

He crouched down near the chair, keeping himself low enough as to not make his presence known to the older girl, but also making sure he was high enough to see what he wanted to see.

Nicholas stared at the swollen stomach of the necromancer.

She would occasionally wince slightly and rub it, making him think something was up.

The little skeleton boy watched Shock's stomach intently, acting as though he expected something to happen.

His eye sockets went as wide as they could possibly go when he saw what seemed to be the outline of a foot show through the fabric of the witch's dark dress.

Wanting to get a closer look, Nicholas lowered himself to the floor and crawled over to the chair Shock was sitting in, being careful to move as quietly as possible. Once he was close enough, he began observing again. Sure enough, the foot's outline appeared again, this time in a different area.

Wanting his curiosity to be satisfied, Nicholas reached out a hand to touch the mound of the witch's stomach. A pale green hand reached out and grabbed his wrist before he could make contact.

"What do you think you're doing?" Shock asked, unclenching her teeth just enough to speak clearly.

The prince of Halloween stuttered slightly, unsure of how to answer. He wasn't afraid, of course; he had no reason to be afraid of a witch who didn't even know any offensive spells.

Dark green eyes narrowed at the prince, a silent demand.

"I…I just wanted to feel" he said in a soft voice, nodding towards Shock's swollen belly.

The witch turned her attention to her stomach for a moment, watching as one of the unborn babies inside punched her, the outline of the fist appearing through the fabric. After a second, she shoved Nicholas away from her and stood up.

"I'm going to bed" she told them as she walked towards the door.

The twins glanced at the old grandfather clock in the room; it was only seven-thirty. They had a full hour before they had to go to bed, so why was Shock deciding to sleep now? The boys decided they really didn't care enough to ask.

Jacky, however, did feel the need to give a statement.

"You know, you're not going to be a very good mom to your kids, the way you push us around" he called to the retreating form of the witch.

Shock seemed to stiffen slightly at the comment, but didn't respond otherwise.

* * *

A week later, Sally told Shock to go out and buy some crabapples and herbs for a pie she wanted to bake for that night's dessert.

Impressed at the firmness of the ragdoll's order, the witch agreed to go. Plus, she had new clothes that were tailored to fit her seemingly ever-expanding body, so she was able to hide her pregnancy again.

Not only that, but she was sure she had started going crazy being cooped up inside all day for as long as she had (ignoring the fact that Jack and Sally had told her to go outside several times…) and getting some fresh air would probably do her some good.

So, she had left the house early in the afternoon and went to the square, where all of the shops were held.

After buying the things on Sally's list, and realizing there were still a few souls left, Shock decided to buy something for herself.

'After all' she thought, 'I deserve it after watching the brats last night'.

So, she had purchased a snack mix of candy corn, beetle shells, snake eyes, gummy worms, and other pieces of candy, taking a seat on a bench near the fountain to eat it.

For being as cheap as it was, the snack mix was rather enjoyable. In fact, the witch was all but blind and deaf to the world around her, focusing on eating her treat. Her mind was only taken away from thoughts of the slightly-sour slimy ball in her mouth by the feeling of sharp teeth grazing her throat.

Almost immediately, the necromancer whipped herself around, ready to slash at the bastard's face; she may not have claws like some of the other monsters in town, but her nails were definitely sharp enough to do serious damage. She paused when she saw who it was.

"Seriously, Lock" she said with a sigh, "why can't you just touch me like a normal person? I almost gouged your eyes out".

Judging by the look on the devil's face, she had chosen the wrong thing to say.

"I wouldn't mind touching you…Though I think if I did, someone would try and have us arrested" Lock responded with a wicked grin.

Shock's cheeks flushed in a mixture of anger and, probably, embarrassment.

'Maybe I should still cut his face a bit, the pervert' she thought, popping another snake eye into her mouth.

The devil climbed over the back of the bench and sat next to his girlfriend. He reached over and stole a handful of beetle shells, gummy worms, and daddy longlegs from her bag, much to her annoyance.

"Where've you been, anyway? You start actually coming to visit, then you just stop showing up out of nowhere" he questioned through a mouth of candy.

"I was sick" she said, the lie coming to her as soon as he had asked the question. Of course, it wasn't a total lie, since as far as she was concerned, pregnancy should be considered as much a disease as smallpox or scarlet fever.

The redhead scoffed. "Yeah, right. This coming from the girl who jinxed the vampires' umbrellas after eating a bad tapeworm".

Tapeworms, while nowhere near as harmful to Halloweeners as they were to humans, could still cause great discomfort and illness if wrongly prepared, as Shock had found out four years ago.

The honeydew-colored-skinned witch rolled her eyes and returned to her snack. Lock reached over again to steal another handful, but she pulled away before he could put his hand inside.

Lock gave a noise of annoyance and once again reached for the bag. And once again, Shock moved the bag out of reach.

In his attempt to grab the bag from his girlfriend, Lock placed his hand on her stomach, which appeared as flat as ever.

Shock's eyes nearly flew open as she felt his hand make contact with her stomach, and they did fly open as she felt a nudge within her body. Based on the look Lock was currently giving her, he had apparently felt it as well.

"What was that?" he asked her, moving his hand away from her stomach after what felt like several hours.

"I think even you're smart enough to figure that out, Lock" Shock told him, turning her gaze away.

The devil suddenly went silent, apparently trying to figure out what he had just felt. After a few moments, he seemed to realize what it was and he frowned.

"A baby?" he asked, as though wanting his suspicions confirmed. The nod the witch gave him was so small that he probably wouldn't have noticed it had he not been looking.

Amber-and-yellow eyes narrowed and Lock growled, "Nice to learn that my girlfriend's been two-timing me".

At this, Shock bolted up, wincing slightly as a sharp pain cut through her abdomen, and gave the devil a death glare.

"It's your kid, you asshole" she hissed at him, suddenly very conscious of the small group of townspeople gathered in the square.

The devil scoffed.

"Yeah…that's why you didn't bother telling me about it," he snapped, standing up and stalking off.

Shock clenched her fists as she watched him walk away, feeling one of her nails stab into a snake eye just underneath the fabric of the bag. The goo from the eye dampened the fabric and she knew the rest of the candy would be ruined, so she tossed it on the ground.

She stood up, grabbed the bag full of the things Sally had sent her to get, and headed back to the Skellington Manor, pausing only to kick away a rat that scurried over her foot.

* * *

Disclaimer: I do not own Nightmare Before Christmas. It belongs to Tim Burton, Henry Selick, Disney…and probably somebody else that I'm forgetting. Nicholas and Jack Jr. belong to Misa1, and the plot and Shock and Lock's twins belong to me.

Yeah, sorry for taking so long to post anything related to Nightmare, but I got hooked on the new My Little Pony show, and got hooked on Avatar again, and those shows are pretty much crack to me, so my mind wasn't really on Nightmare. I'm honestly only writing this because of Italia. This is an early birthday gift to her, and since I knew she wasn't into Friendship is Magic, I decided to update this story, since I knew she still liked Nightmare, even if neither of us had worked on any stories for the fandom in a while.

Anyway, happy very early birthday, Italia. And…*Pulls out slip of paper* "May the otters be ever in good flavor". Well, that made no sense.

Chapter Title Explanation: Honestly, I'm not sure how much I need to actually explain this title, since I'm sure pretty much everyone knows the basic story of the sword in the stone, even if they aren't huge fans of the Arthurian legends like I am. However, in order to keep this part from being boring, I will give a brief explanation. Basically, when King Uther Pendragon died, a sword appeared stabbed into an anvil that was placed upon a stone in the courtyard of a church. Most versions of the story basically say that a being from Heaven put the sword into the stone, and written on the sword is basically a prophecy. This prophecy says that anyone who can pull the sword from the stone is the rightful king of England. Every knight in England tries to pull the sword from the stone, but none of them can even get it to budge. That is, until a nineteen year old Arthur, nicknamed "Wart", pulls the sword out with very little effort when he needs to get a sword for his foster brother, Sir Kay. He later puts the sword back into the stone and anvil, and pulls it out again in from of Kay and Kay's father, proving that he is Uther's son, and the true king.


End file.
